FOI / EIR Request — Empirical Baseline Data for Local Housing Need and Housing
Case reference FOI2026/01964
Received 14 September 2026
Published 13 October 2026
Request
Subject: FOI / EIR Request — Empirical Baseline Data for Local Housing Need and Housing
I make this request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and/or the Environmental Information Regulations 2004, as applicable.
This request concerns the recorded empirical baseline data held by the Council, or held on the Council’s behalf, which is relied upon to justify housing need, housing allocations, Local Plan housing numbers, settlement-level allocations, Regulation 18 / Regulation 19 Local Plan preparation, or any related planning-growth strategy.
For the avoidance of doubt, I am not requesting a policy explanation, a general summary of the MHCLG Standard Method, general links to the Local Plan evidence base, or a narrative response. I am requesting the specific recorded information, datasets, reports, database exports, tables, registers, assessments, or documents held by the Council or held on its behalf.
For the purposes of this request, “held on the Council’s behalf” includes information held by any Registered Provider, Housing Association, housing-register administrator, consultant, contractor, shared-service body or other third party managing, analysing or reporting housing-need information for the Council, within the meaning of section 3(2)(b) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
Please provide the following recorded information.
1. Five-year local residency data
Please provide the title, date, source and digital copy of any dataset, register, report, database export, table or document held by the Council, or held on its behalf, recording the number of individuals or households currently requiring housing who have a minimum five-year continuous local residency connection within this borough / district / council area.
If the Council holds this information only as database fields rather than as a pre-existing report, please provide the relevant field names, data schema and any existing count, extract or report showing that residency connection.
2. Local employment-connection data
Please provide the title, date, source and digital copy of any dataset, register, report, database export, table or document held by the Council, or held on its behalf, recording the number of individuals or households currently requiring housing on the basis of a verified local employment connection within this borough / district / council area.
If the Council holds this information only as database fields rather than as a pre-existing report, please provide the relevant field names, data schema and any existing count, extract or report showing that employment connection.
3. Settlement-level housing-need data
Please provide the title, date, source and digital copy of any dataset, register, report, database export, table or document held by the Council, or held on its behalf, showing housing need broken down by settlement, town, village, ward or parish within the council area.
This should include any recorded information used to decide how much housing need is attributed to each settlement or location within the Local Plan.
4. Tenure and affordability breakdown
Please provide the title, date, source and digital copy of any dataset, register, report, table or document showing the tenure breakdown of local housing need, including social rent, affordable rent, shared ownership, market housing, supported housing, temporary accommodation need, and any other tenure category used by the Council.
5. Separation of local need from external or policy-driven demand
Please provide any recorded information, dataset, report, methodology note or assessment held by the Council, or held on its behalf, which separates genuine local housing need from:
• inward relocation;
• migration;
• asylum or resettlement demand;
• student demand;
• investor demand;
• second homes;
• short-term lets;
• overseas recruitment;
• general population-growth projections;
• policy-driven growth;
• unmet need displaced from other areas.
6. Reconciliation of historic projections against homes already built
Please provide any recorded information, table, report or assessment showing how historic housing-need projections have been reduced, adjusted or reconciled against homes actually built in the council area.
This includes any reconciliation of historic projections against:
• completed dwellings;
• demographic change;
• falling birth rates;
• natural population change;
• migration assumptions;
• household formation assumptions;
• infrastructure capacity;
• previous Local Plan delivery.
7. Reliance on the Standard Method
Please provide any recorded Council document, officer report, consultant report, committee report, legal advice summary, planning evidence paper or technical note explaining whether the Council relies on the MHCLG Standard Method as a substitute for the local empirical datasets requested above.
If no such document exists, please confirm that no recorded information is held.
Response
Thank you for your recent request under the Freedom of Information Act.
Please find the answers to your queries below:
Subject: FOI / EIR Request — Empirical Baseline Data for Local Housing Need and Housing
I make this request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and/or the Environmental Information Regulations 2004, as applicable.
This request concerns the recorded empirical baseline data held by the Council, or held on the Council’s behalf, which is relied upon to justify housing need, housing allocations, Local Plan housing numbers, settlement-level allocations, Regulation 18 / Regulation 19 Local Plan preparation, or any related planning-growth strategy.
For the avoidance of doubt, I am not requesting a policy explanation, a general summary of the MHCLG Standard Method, general links to the Local Plan evidence base, or a narrative response. I am requesting the specific recorded information, datasets, reports, database exports, tables, registers, assessments, or documents held by the Council or held on its behalf.
For the purposes of this request, “held on the Council’s behalf” includes information held by any Registered Provider, Housing Association, housing-register administrator, consultant, contractor, shared-service body or other third party managing, analysing or reporting housing-need information for the Council, within the meaning of section 3(2)(b) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
Please provide the following recorded information.
1. Five-year local residency data
Please provide the title, date, source and digital copy of any dataset, register, report, database export, table or document held by the Council, or held on its behalf, recording the number of individuals or households currently requiring housing who have a minimum five-year continuous local residency connection within this borough / district / council area.
If the Council holds this information only as database fields rather than as a pre-existing report, please provide the relevant field names, data schema and any existing count, extract or report showing that residency connection.
We do not hold a report of this data. However, information about our housing allocations scheme is publicly available information which can be found via the following website:
https://www.guildford.gov.uk/article/25567/Who-can-apply-to-be-on-the-housing-register
In particular, please see the Allocation Scheme (PDF) policy, which includes further information about the qualification criteria at Section 4.3.
As such, the information you require can be found from publicly available sources and consequentially under Section 21 of the Act, we are not required to provide information in response to a request if it is already reasonably accessible.
2. Local employment-connection data
Please provide the title, date, source and digital copy of any dataset, register, report, database export, table or document held by the Council, or held on its behalf, recording the number of individuals or households currently requiring housing on the basis of a verified local employment connection within this borough / district / council area.
If the Council holds this information only as database fields rather than as a pre-existing report, please provide the relevant field names, data schema and any existing count, extract or report showing that employment connection.
We do not hold a report of this data. However, information about our housing allocations scheme is publicly available information which can be found via the following website:
https://www.guildford.gov.uk/article/25567/Who-can-apply-to-be-on-the-housing-register
In particular, please see the Allocation Scheme (PDF) policy, which includes further information about the qualification criteria at Section 4.3.
As such, the information you require can be found from publicly available sources and consequentially under Section 21 of the Act, we are not required to provide information in response to a request if it is already reasonably accessible.
3. Settlement-level housing-need data
Please provide the title, date, source and digital copy of any dataset, register, report, database export, table or document held by the Council, or held on its behalf, showing housing need broken down by settlement, town, village, ward or parish within the council area.
This should include any recorded information used to decide how much housing need is attributed to each settlement or location within the Local Plan.
Yes, the Local Plan is based on an evidence base. The latest evidence is available on our website and can be found via the following link:
https://www.guildford.gov.uk/article/25486/Housing-Needs-Assessment-2026
As such, under Regulation 6(1)(b) of the Environmental Information Regulations 2004, where information is already publicly available and easily accessible to an applicant in another form, the authority may direct the applicant to that source instead of providing a further copy.
4. Tenure and affordability breakdown
Please provide the title, date, source and digital copy of any dataset, register, report, table or document showing the tenure breakdown of local housing need, including social rent, affordable rent, shared ownership, market housing, supported housing, temporary accommodation need, and any other tenure category used by the Council.
Housing data is publicly available information and is published on our website via the following link:
https://www.guildford.gov.uk/article/23527/Housing-facts-and-figures
As such, the information you require can be found from publicly available sources and consequentially under Section 21 of the Act, we are not required to provide information in response to a request if it is already reasonably accessible.
5. Separation of local need from external or policy-driven demand
Please provide any recorded information, dataset, report, methodology note or assessment held by the Council, or held on its behalf, which separates genuine local housing need from:
• inward relocation;
• migration;
• asylum or resettlement demand;
• student demand;
• investor demand;
• second homes;
• short-term lets;
• overseas recruitment;
• general population-growth projections;
• policy-driven growth;
• unmet need displaced from other areas.
We don’t hold this data in any capacity other than that shared in the above link.
6. Reconciliation of historic projections against homes already built
Please provide any recorded information, table, report or assessment showing how historic housing-need projections have been reduced, adjusted or reconciled against homes actually built in the council area.
This includes any reconciliation of historic projections against:
• completed dwellings;
• demographic change;
• falling birth rates;
• natural population change;
• migration assumptions;
• household formation assumptions;
• infrastructure capacity;
• previous Local Plan delivery.
Authority monitoring reports and land supply positions are published on our website and are available via the following link:
https://www.guildford.gov.uk/article/22879/Monitoring-the-Local-Plan
As such, under Regulation 6(1)(b) of the Environmental Information Regulations 2004, where information is already publicly available and easily accessible to an applicant in another form, the authority may direct the applicant to that source instead of providing a further copy.
We don’t hold this data in any capacity other than that shared in the above link.
7. Reliance on the Standard Method
Please provide any recorded Council document, officer report, consultant report, committee report, legal advice summary, planning evidence paper or technical note explaining whether the Council relies on the MHCLG Standard Method as a substitute for the local empirical datasets requested above.
If no such document exists, please confirm that no recorded information is held.
The Local Plan is based on an evidence base. The latest evidence is available on our website and can be found via the following link:
https://www.guildford.gov.uk/article/25486/Housing-Needs-Assessment-2026
As such, under Regulation 6(1)(b) of the Environmental Information Regulations 2004, where information is already publicly available and easily accessible to an applicant in another form, the authority may direct the applicant to that source instead of providing a further copy.
Yours sincerely
FOI Team
Guildford Borough Council
Documents
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